January 30, 2014

China to help poultry farmers hit with 20b yuan losses over H7N9

A recent outbreak of bird flu in China has cost poultry farmers 20 billion yuan (HK$25.4 billion)[US$3.3 billion] and the government will implement new policies to support the industry, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday.

The outbreak has affected more than 40 million farmers and triggered a fall in chicken and egg prices, the newspaper said. It quoted Zhang Zhongqiu, a senior official of China’s Ministry of Agriculture, as saying that new policies would be rolled out in due course.

Chinese authorities have confirmed a second human case of the new H10N8 strain of bird flu, contracted by a woman who is in a critical condition in a hospital in the east of the country, state news agency Xinhua reported this week.

The previous bird flu outbreak, which began last March, caused direct economic losses exceeding 60 billion yuan [US$9.9 billion] during the first half of last year, the Shanghai Securities News said.

So far this year, China has confirmed 110 human H7N9 cases including 22 deaths, according to an AFP tally of reports by local authorities.

Public-health disasters often result from stupidly tight-fisted governments that would rather see their citizens die than pay their farmers adequate compensation. If you're dumb enough to think you can screw your farmers one more time, you shouldn't be surprised to see those farmers, with pitchforks, kick down your office door.

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A recent outbreak of bird flu in China has cost poultry farmers 20 billion yuan (HK$25.4 billion)[US$3.3 billion] and the government will implement new policies to support the industry, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday.

The outbreak has affected more than 40 million farmers and triggered a fall in chicken and egg prices, the newspaper said. It quoted Zhang Zhongqiu, a senior official of China’s Ministry of Agriculture, as saying that new policies would be rolled out in due course.

Chinese authorities have confirmed a second human case of the new H10N8 strain of bird flu, contracted by a woman who is in a critical condition in a hospital in the east of the country, state news agency Xinhua reported this week.

The previous bird flu outbreak, which began last March, caused direct economic losses exceeding 60 billion yuan [US$9.9 billion] during the first half of last year, the Shanghai Securities News said.

So far this year, China has confirmed 110 human H7N9 cases including 22 deaths, according to an AFP tally of reports by local authorities.

Public-health disasters often result from stupidly tight-fisted governments that would rather see their citizens die than pay their farmers adequate compensation. If you're dumb enough to think you can screw your farmers one more time, you shouldn't be surprised to see those farmers, with pitchforks, kick down your office door.